Otto Malpense

Otto is the main character of the series H.I.V.E. (Higher Institute Of Villainous Education) In the beginning of the series he is 13 years old. Hailing from England, he was orphaned at birth and left at the doorstep of an orphanage called St. Sebastian's. As a toddler he would pick up books and would stare at the words and absorb the information. By the time he was barely in his preteens, Otto smoothly ran St. Sebastian's as the official leader of St. Sebastian's was very-weak minded, and due to him knowing what they were studying in school and acting arrogantly towards the teachers he had the leader of St. Sebastian's "tutor him". In reality he was free to do what he wanted, and the leader could use the money she was given to use however she wanted.

Soon after he found out that the Prime Minister wanted to cut funding for many orphanages throughout Great Britain, mostly in the slum areas which is where St. Sebastian was. Otto, in an attempt to ruin the PM's credibility and keep the money flowing, builds a robotic mind control device. On the 13th anniversary that he was left at the orphanage (which he celebrates as his birthday) he uses the robotic device and publicly shames the British Prime Minister by forcing him to insult himself and his ministers. Also forcing him to moon the audience. Immediately after the PM mooned everyone during what would be his last press conference, Otto is knocked out by Nero's most trusted Agent, Raven, and is taken to HIVE. On the helicopter he meets Wing who would later be his roommate and best friend. Not wanting to stay at H.I.V.E. for the required six years, he immediately begins forming a plot to escape. Wing goes on board with the idea along with two other friends, Laura and Shelby.

Otto has displayed an odd ability near the end of the Overlord Protocol where his conscious mind is subdued and his unconscious commands his hands to type a series of commands in the H.I.V.E.Mind that would have normally taken three hours to put in. He gets kidnapped in Dreadnought and is controlled throughout Rogue by an organic substance (Animus) that allows him to be programmed by H.O.P.E and attempts to kill his friends on several occasions but blacks out before he can kill them. In Escape Velocity, he finds out that he has the ability to interface with any digital technology and control it, and that he is a clone of Number One (explaining his white hair and his ability to absorb information). In Dreadnought he further develops his abilities and eventually saves the president of America. This gets him captured by H.O.P.E., a brutal security force who are actually evil, who use him as a slave by pumping him full of Animus fluid. In Rogue, Otto is a slave to H.O.P.E. who now goes after and starts killing people in the committee in G.L.O.V.E. Darkdoom announces that Otto has to be executed, but Nero sends Raven and Wing to bring him back. Meanwhile, Laura and Cypher look at a new computer system that is faltering H.I.V.E.'s system, which was really H.I.V.E. Mind coming back online. They manage to save Otto and get the Animus fluid out of him, while in the process, killing H.O.P.E.'s leader, Jason Drake and Cypher. It was now learned that Overlord is after Otto to make him his new permanent home. In Zero Hour, Raven gets infected by Animus and takes Otto, Wing, Laura, Shelby, Franz, Nigel, and Lucy hostage. They were all saved and taken to the Megalodon submarine with Alpha Stream Alumni where they plan out how to end the battle. They save Raven from the Animus, defeat Overlord, stop the supposed Nanites from getting lose, and save them all. In the process, Lucy dies for Otto as a sacrifice. The battle isn't over yet though. The Disciples, which is a group that supported Overlord is still out there, and they need to be stopped. In Aftershock, the members of G.L.O.V.E. are furious that Nero was planning to take out G.L.O.V.E., so they sabotage him and his school by joining the Disciples. Chief Dekker, the head of security for H.I.V.E., is a part of the Disciples, and blackmailed Laura to betray her friends for her family's safety. The Disciples murder Alpha students and take Laura, Nigel, Tom, and Penny hostage in the hands of Anastasia Furan. Since Otto was partly involved without knowing he was, he was expelled from H.I.V.E., but he is allowed to return if he, H.I.V.E. Mind, and Raven can bring back the Alpha students.

There are strong hints that Otto may have a romantic interest in his friend Laura Brand at the school. At the beginning of Zero Hour he starts a romantic relationship with Lucy Dexter, although in the end of the book, she is shot. In the next book Aftershock, Laura questions Otto if what he whispered to her one day was true or not. Turns out, Otto whispered "I love you" to Laura as he lay close to death, as Laura shares the same feelings for Otto. Otto shares with her that even though he seemed interested in Lucy Dexter, he always had romantic interests in Laura. This was even proven in the first book, Higher Institute of Villainous Education, when they were talking to each other, and Otto claimed that she was a pretty red-haired Scottish girl with some of the most striking green eyes he has ever seen.

Otto's name comes from his experiment number 0110 given to him by Overlord (something he found ironic).

Besides mentioning that Otto's name came from his friend's cat, Mark Walden has made no announcements on the origin of Otto's characteristics.

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